Tuesday 26 July 2011 17.00 EDT
First published on Tuesday 26 July 2011 17.00 EDT

Blackburn Rovers are confident of signing up to four new players before the start of the Premier League campaign next month, with the manager, Steve Kean, insistent that the club can realistically challenge for Champions League qualification within four years.

The Lancashire club have endured a frustrating time in the transfer market so far this summer, losing the promising Phil Jones to Manchester United and Jermaine Jones back to Schalke. The striker Nikola Kalinic is also due to complete a £6m move to Dnipro while Rovers have yet to add to their squad. Kean hopes to buck that trend in the coming weeks with some timely additions, sanctioned by the club's owners, Venky's, aimed initially at securing a top-half finish ahead of a pursuit of Europe.

"We'll be spending," said Kean. "We've got a very good budget and we're looking to recruit and strengthen in areas where we've seen we have to improve from last season. It's no secret that we're looking for a striker, and we lost Jermaine, who went back to Schalke, as well so we're trying to get a central midfielder in. And we need a centre-half to replace Phil Jones. We have a fixed budget to spend but it's one that is competitive which will bring in players of good quality.

"We'll look to bring in three or four players during this window, and we don't have to sell before we buy. We've got three or four active bids in for players, and we're waiting to see if they've been accepted. Two or three are quite far down the line. We're confident we'll add to the squad and have a good season.

"To jump from where we were last season [when Blackburn secured survival on the final day] to the top four next season would be unrealistic, but the first building block will be ending up in the top half. We're positive we can do that. The owners and the fans should be excited about what we're doing here. Trying to deliver European football in three or four years for this club is achievable. We're not going to say we'll get it next year but, if we can get a foothold in the top half of the table, that's a realistic goal."

The Serbia midfielder Radosav Petrovic is expected to be the first of the arrivals, Partizan Belgrade having received a bid of around £2.5m for the 22-year-old. The Partizan director of sport, Mladen Krstajic, has indicated that the clubs are "close" to reaching an agreement, after a proposed move to Vitesse Arnhem fell through. The Monaco defender Cedric Mongongu could also be on his way to Ewood Park.

Kean must convince his current key players to remain at the club if progress is to be made. Christopher Samba has attracted interest from Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, with Rovers braced to receive unwelcome bids before the transfer window closes and fearful that he might follow Jones out of the club. "Phil moved on and there was interest in him not only from Manchester United but from other clubs," said Kean, whose side play Aston Villa here on Wednesday in the Premier League Asia Cup. "That was the difficult thing.

"He'd only played a small number of games for us but he wanted Champions League football. We're not at that moment [where we can offer him that] yet. Hopefully we will be in three or four years' time, but we appreciated he wanted to move on. Chris is only three months into a new five-year contract, and we've not had any bids for him. We don't want to get any, either.

"Any time we have a bid accepted for a player and we can get in front of them and speak to them, we can get across how exciting a period this is for the club. Sure, it's difficult recruiting players who are at clubs already playing European football, who are used to playing at that level, but if we can take them from different leagues or areas of the world and show them what we're trying to do, we're not a hard sell. And, if we can fight off interest in players like Samba, we're confident we can have a good season."